Beach Trip and Basketball

 Mathews last basketball game was in Illwaco. With the game in the evening, and it being a two hour drive, we thought we would make a weekend out of it. Friday morning brought glorious sunshine that chased away the depressing weight a long spell of rain and cloudy sunless days brings! Needless to say,we were super excited.
Mathew had to ride up with his team after school, so we left in the morning. Stuart took Friday off, we excused Esther from school, and headed to the beach for a much needed trip! The weather was beautiful. We stayed in Astoria, and went to both Washington and Oregon beaches.

 Esther did some light running for the first time sense last fall (torn ligament in ankle). She ran farther than I thought she would. It was so nice out in the sun, I felt like I could run and keep up with her!

 We thought of you Laura ( and Jeremy ) when we saw this flag on one of the boats in the marina behind our hotel!

  You cant go to Long Beach without standing in front of the big pan...

 ...or sit in the LOVE chair at Marshes Museum.

 On our way to Mathews game we stopped and saw the beautiful sunset. A lovely ending to our day. And Mathews team won their game. They finished the season undefeated, so it was awesome for him.

 Fort Stevens

  Some more running.

 They were actually smiling, laughing, and playing.

After lunch at the Pig-N-Pancake, which had gluten free pancakes, we stopped at the Astoria Column. Stuart took one look at the narrow spiral stair case (164 steps up) and decided to wait at the bottom. Mathew, Esther, and I went ahead despite our full stomachs! The 360 degree view from the top was so beautiful! I had to keep my back to the wall, so I couldn't see Stuart on the ground. On our way back down we met Stuart on the stairs so we went back up. I was glad he decided to go up. The view was worth the climb.